*when HiFi is just not an option

Every once in awhile, someone asks me why I have pink hair.
(You ever notice that no one asks why anyone has blonde hair, or red hair? But pink, it seems, requires a good reason.)
There are a lot of ways I could answer that question, but the simplest is probably that I don’t really buy into [...]

You see it done all the time, and it’s just so wasteful.
People take a bunch of perfectly good trash, and they just toss it in the garbage can.
Unbelievable.
The thing is, any time you create something, you’re going to end up with a lot of odds and ends, scraps that end up on the metaphorical cutting [...]

Spring has finally sprung here in the northeast, but I’m not sure any of us quite believe it. It could still be a snowy 10 degrees tomorrow. Twenty years in New England has taught me that.
Which is why I haven’t really done anything about the fact that my new studio did not come with screens [...]

“I don’t know where I’m a-gonna go when the volcano blow.” ~Jimmy Buffett
Ever feel like you’re trapped in a pseudo-reggae song written by a white guy from Mobile, Alabama?
Some days it’s a sick kid, or spouse, or dog.
Some days it’s a key vendor who disappears on you, or a merchant account that freezes a bunch [...]

If you’re a writer, congratulations! You have magic to be envied.
You possess the rare skill of being able to make something from nothing.
You can change thinking, create emotions, paint pictures in your readers’s minds. You can manufacture money from thin air.
Just by moving your fingers across the keyboard.
Through the alchemy of writing, you can take [...]

I just returned from a Bobby McFerrin concert, and now I know how to run my new business. No, this post isn’t about “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Bobby McFerrin is much more than that.
You see, I’m a little nervous. For 23 years, I’ve made my income the same way — in a service business, as [...]

About 80% of your blog’s success comes from “ass in chair” time. That’s the time you spend writing posts, editing posts, finding the perfect image, connecting with fellow bloggers, answering comments, shaping up your SEO, and all the other tasks we teach you about here on Copyblogger.
You’ve got to get that stuff right. But great [...]

I’ve written a few contrarian things lately.
Specifically, I ranted a bit about why I think the most common “make money online” technique doesn’t work for most people, and about how, really, the most important ingredients of success are persistence and grit.
Then, on my own blog, I ranted about why “systems” for achieving specific results don’t [...]

When I first had the insane brilliant idea to start a business and get out of the alleged safety of the corporate world, I started by reading everything I could find.
I wish I could remember where the thread started for me. It might have been Dan Kennedy, it might have been Michael Port, it could [...]

This is the final installment of a three-part series on how to translate advice from marketing guru Dan Kennedy to a new online environment.
One of the smartest things any online marketer can do is to study the “old school” guys who wrote direct mail, magazine ads, and other artifacts of advertising history.
Why? Because it took [...]

My last post here, How to do 500 Times Better than AdSense, got a lot of buzz and a lot of Tweets and generated my first real dose of reader hate.
That’s cool; if you’re not stirring the pot a little bit, chances are you’re not making an impact.
Despite some blowback, I enjoyed reading all of [...]